Mediterranean Migrant Deaths Persist a Decade After EU Crisis

Ten years after Europe’s 2015 migration emergency, the Mediterranean remains the world’s deadliest sea crossing for people seeking to reach the European Union. The International Organization for Migration estimates at least 3,812 people drowned or went missing on the voyage in 2024—nearly half of them on the central route between North Africa and Italy or Malta—despite a more than one-third drop in irregular maritime arrivals reported by EU border agency Frontex. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the European Commission say the decline in arrivals shows that tougher border controls, cooperation deals with Libya and Tunisia, and crackdowns on smugglers are deterring departures. Frontex data show overall sea arrivals fell a further 17% in the first half of 2025. Yet the central Mediterranean remains perilous: deaths on that corridor surged 78% in 2023 to 2,526 before easing, and smugglers are increasingly using smaller, overcrowded boats to evade detection. A Reuters reconstruction of an August 2024 incident highlights the human cost. After six hours of unanswered distress calls to regional rescue centres, Medecins Sans Frontières’ vessel Geo Barents pulled 71 migrants from a deflating rubber dinghy off Libya. Italian authorities later ordered the ship to disembark the survivors 1,000 km away in Livorno, a policy NGOs say reduces their time in the search-and-rescue zone and raises the risk of further tragedies. Humanitarian groups and the UN refugee agency argue that EU deterrence policies, including a 2023 Italian law limiting NGO rescues and more than 30 subsequent ship impoundments, leave more boats unaided and push migrants onto ever-riskier routes. IOM recorded 588 deaths in the first six months of this year—down sharply from the prior two years but still averaging three fatalities a day—underscoring, critics say, the need for expanded legal migration pathways and better state-led rescue coverage.